AWOL ERIZKU TO PRESENT NEW SUITE OF PHOTOGRAPHS FOR 350- SITE EXHIBITION ACROSS NEW YORK CITY AND CHICAGO OPENING FEBRUARY 24, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AWOL ERIZKU TO PRESENT NEW SUITE OF PHOTOGRAPHS FOR 350-
   SITE EXHIBITION ACROSS NEW YORK CITY AND CHICAGO
                OPENING FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Awol Erizku: New Visions for Iris
JCDecaux Bus Shelters
Citywide: New York, New York & Chicago, Illinois
February 24, 2021—June 20, 2021

December 3, 2020, NEW YORK, NY—On February 24, Public Art Fund will debut New Visions for
Iris, a 350-site photography exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Awol Erizku. On view at 200
JCDecaux bus shelters across New York City and 150 in Chicago, this is the first time Public Art
Fund is to stage an exhibition concurrently in two cities. This body of 13 photographs will present
a new visual lexicon that explores the liminal space between imagination, spirituality, and image
making, and was inspired by the recent birth of Erizku’s daughter—Iris—as a way for him to
discuss difficult subjects around identity and religion with her. Comprising still-lifes, portraits,
and depictions of birds, the suite of new work challenges the traditional Western canon and
alludes to genre painting and pictorial styles in contemporary advertising. Made inside Erizku’s
studio, the still-lifes are composed of a multitude of objects such as African masks, Egyptian
motifs, Islamic religious texts, and everyday items like candles and flowers. The portraits, shot in
the studio and at a local park, feature intimate moments of men in prayer and contemplation,

evoking the introspection often demanded by the challenges of our current moment. Birds such
as falcons appear throughout the series, signifying both freedom and control over one’s destiny.
Developed with the language of advertising and consumerism in mind, these large-scale images
expand on the glossary of motifs the artist has explored in past work. Creating visual poems,
Erizku imagines an inclusive reinvention of our shared public spaces that challenge the status
quo of typical commercial images. New Visions for Iris is Erizku’s first solo public exhibition
and will be on view from February 24 through June 20, 2021.

“My image-making process is a reflection of how I encounter the world. It allows me to explore
alternate possibilities and novel ways of engaging with the world around me,” says artist Awol
Erizku. “These works function as both propositions and questions about what else is in dire need
of invigoration, which also come with a great deal of responsibility when displayed in public
space. As a father, I think about how to raise a daughter in this world and explain cultural
parameters and gray areas; I want my daughter Iris to grow up with these images so they’re the
norm for her. With New Visions for Iris I want to reflect a less fixed, rigid, institutional
understanding of the spaces we occupy.”

Erizku’s multidisciplinary practice spans photography, painting, and sculpture. He is known for
creating images that bring together colorful, attention-grabbing compositions with meditative
underpinnings. Erizku, who was born in Ethiopia and grew up in a Muslim household in the
Bronx, adapts visual styles of marketing, while reflecting on his own world view with references
to texts, encounters, ideologies, and spirituality. Inspired by pre-colonial and oral African history,
for this body of work, Erizku has brought together objects such as Nefertiti busts, cowrie shells,
wax casts of African masks, and Ethiopian letterforms that transcend the Western, post-colonial
perspective. Falcons appear perched on lone arms and can be found among the men featured in
the portraits playing chess, praying, and reflecting. The thoughtful quietude of these subjects
capture stoic, personal moments that foster the power of connection and dialogue. The images in
New Visions for Iris approach layered issues of our time, including identity, faith, and fatherhood.

“New Visions for Iris is a highly personal selection of new work by Awol Erizku that addresses a
number of resonant themes and weighty issues of our complex times,” says Public Art Fund
Curator Daniel S. Palmer. “The suite of images are Erizku’s ‘new visions’ for this moment. They
establish a current vernacular of picture making to spark dialogue among all audiences and
generations. Addressing significant lacunae in the history of photography and advertising, the
images Erizku has created incorporate a myriad of personally meaningful signs and symbols in
surprising, compelling, and evocative ways.”

These multidimensional compositions were created in and around Erizku’s studio as recently as
the fall of 2020. In conceiving them, Erizku focused on the public nature of these large-scale
works, which will reach millions in New York and Chicago who pass the illuminated JCDecaux
bus shelters in their communities or while traveling through the cities. By disrupting this typical

advertising space, Erizku aims to pay homage to the past, while sharing fresh perspectives on
the present and future. New Visions for Iris will be presented in a diverse range of neighborhoods,
and often installed in clusters near community centers and mosques that are central to Erizku’s
own experience. By using visual cues to pique viewers’ interests and create multiple avenues of
understanding, Erizku hopes his images will trigger moments of reflection, contemplation, and
conversation.

Public Art Fund and JCDecaux's partnership began in 2017 with Ai Weiwei: Good Fences Make
Good Neighbors. Since then, it has expanded to showcase topical new bodies of work, including
solo presentations with photographers Elle Pérez and Farah Al Qasimi, and most recently this
summer, Art on the Grid: 50 artists’ reflections on the parallel epidemics of COVID-19 and
systemic racism at 500+ locations across New York City. They build upon Public Art Fund’s rich
history of transforming the city’s ubiquitous advertising spaces to bring artistic voices to street
level, enabling the public to encounter remarkable works of art along their daily routes by bus or
on foot.

“Providing services to city dwellers is a fundamental and founding principle of JCDecaux.
Extending the benefit our amenities can offer through our partnership with Public Art Fund to
include museum-quality artists made available to, and reaching throughout neighborhoods
across New York City and Chicago, is a small but important and visible contribution to
addressing the inequity of access to art,” says Alan Sullivan, co-Chief Executive Officer of
JCDecaux North America, Inc. “We are honored to continue this program with Public Art Fund
and Awol Erizku, whose work speaks to the language of advertising and topical issues around
race, identity, and spirituality that will undoubtedly resonate with local communities across both
cities.”

Awol Erizku: New Visions for Iris is curated by Public Art Fund Curator Daniel S. Palmer.

                             @PublicArtFund #NewVisionsForIris

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Awol Erizku (b. 1988, Gondar, Ethiopia) is a conceptual artist living and working in Los Angeles,
CA. Erizku received his BA from Cooper Union in 2010 and his MFA from Yale in 2014. He has
exhibited at institutions across the country including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and
the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Mystic Parallax at The
FLAG Art Foundation, New York, Slow Burn at Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong, Menace II
Society at Night Gallery, Los Angeles, Make America Great Again at Ben Brown Fine Arts,
London, New Flower | Images of the Reclining Venus at The FLAG Art Foundation, New York,
and Bad II the Bone presented at nomadic exhibition venue, Duchamp Detox Clinic, by Night
Gallery.

VISITING THE EXHIBITION
Awol Erizku: New Visions for Iris is located on 200 JCDecaux bus shelters across New York City’s
five boroughs and 150 JCDecaux bus shelters in Chicago.

Public Art Fund exhibitions are always free and open to the public.

SUPPORT
Special thanks to the Office of the Mayor, Manhattan Borough President, NYC Parks, and Central
Park Conservancy.

Public Art Fund is supported by the generosity of individuals, corporations, and private
foundations including lead support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, along with major support
from the Charina Endowment Fund, Con Edison, the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for
the Arts, The Marc Haas Foundation, Hartfield Foundation, NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact
Fund in The New York Community Trust, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, and The
Silverweed Foundation.

Public Art Fund exhibitions are also supported in part with public funds from the New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

ABOUT PUBLIC ART FUND
As the leader in its field, Public Art Fund brings dynamic contemporary art to a broad audience in
New York City and beyond by mounting ambitious free exhibitions of international scope and
impact that offer the public powerful experiences with art and the urban environment.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Grace Halio | ghalio@publicartfund.org
Allegra Thoresen | athoresen@publicartfund.org

Image caption:
Awol Erizku, The Last Tears of the Deceased, 2020
Commissioned by Public Art Fund for Awol Erizku: New Visions for Iris, an exhibition on 350 JCDecaux bus
shelter displays across New York City and Chicago, February 24 to June 20, 2021
Courtesy of Awol Erizku

Awol Erizku, Deep Shadow (Michael Brown Sr.), 2020
Commissioned by Public Art Fund for Awol Erizku: New Visions for Iris, an exhibition on 350 JCDecaux bus
shelter displays across New York City and Chicago, February 24 to June 20, 2021
Courtesy of Awol Erizku

Awol Erizku, Going Home, 2020
Commissioned by Public Art Fund for Awol Erizku: New Visions for Iris, an exhibition on 350 JCDecaux bus
shelter displays across New York City and Chicago, February 24 to June 20, 2021
Courtesy of Awol Erizku